How Much Should You Pay for a Chipper Shredder?

Here’s a common situation: your yard piles up with weeds, leaves, or even fallen branches. Instead of throwing all of these away, you can make the most out of it through chipper shredders. These machines ingest organic material commonly found in your yard or garden, breaking these down so they’re turned into mulch or chippings. You can then put these back into the soil, where they can serve as compost or even decrease hardening during winter.

Pricing

If you’ve gotten curious about buying a chipper shredder, you might notice that pricing varies a lot, from $100 to more than $3000. The reason for this is that there are many types of chipper shredders, not to mention all of the add-on features available. The price of the chipper shredder is proportional to how much power it has—the tougher the material it can chew through, the more expensive it is.

Types of Chipper Shredders

Prices are somewhat consistent based on chipper shredder type:

Petrol Chipper Shredders

Petrol or gas-powered chipper shredders are more expensive, ranging from $1000 to even higher than $3000. These are very powerful, producing high-quality cuttings even from branches that are more than 2 in. thick. You can move them around freely because they don’t have to be connected to a power cord. However, the cost doesn’t stop with the buying price—you’ll have to regularly buy fuel for it.

The average household typically doesn’t need this. Petrol chipper shredders are mostly for commercial use. On the other hand, if you have a large property that must be regularly tended or if you’re planning to shred heavy material such as huge branches, then a petrol chipper shredder will do the trick.

Electric Chipper Shredders

Electric chipper shredders are much cheaper than petrol chipper shredders. You can find electric chipper shredders for as low as $100 and as high as $800, but you probably don’t want to choose the cheapest models because they might not be very durable.

The tradeoff for price is power, so electric chipper shredders can’t handle what petrol chipper shredders chomp through. The average homeowner only deals with smaller branches and twigs, though, so an electric chipper shredder would be the best-fit option. Most electric chipper shredders can handle branches up to 1.5 inch in thickness. They also have to be plugged into a power source, resulting in limited mobility compared to petrol chipper shredders.

Electric chipper shredders can be further divided into two:

Impact Chipper Shredder

Impact chipper shredders are the most common and also the cheapest, starting at around $100. They use spinning blades for cutting, which is great for green material like leaves as well as lightweight branches. However, they’re pretty noisy! After a while, the blades might get blunted, too, so you’ll have to replace them.

Roller Chipper Shredder

Roller chipper shredders are more obscure, but one advantage is that they’re significantly quieter. A little pricier than impact chipper shredders, these start at $200. Roller chipper shredders are equipped with a roller or a big drum, which crushes the organic material against a flat plate. Avoid putting in moist material like wet leaves since these can clog the chipper shredders.

Choosing What to Buy

To sum it up, you’re best suited for an electric chipper shredders if you’re only targeting your home’s backyard. Pricewise, you can get good deals at around $100 to $200, although you might have to compromise on the quality a bit. A safer bet, if you’re willing to invest a little bit more money, would be $200 or above, with power and nifty features increasing along with the price.

Getting a chipper shredder for heavy-duty work? Be ready to shell out at least $1000 for a petrol chipper shredder. For the best of the best, you might even be looking at $3000! Still, it’s possible to find effective petrol chipper shredders at bargain prices of less than $1000 if you search hard enough.

Whichever chipper shredder you choose to buy, always keep quality in mind and you can check out these in depth chipper shredder reviews. Make sure the chipper shredder has safety functions like locking knobs and automatic off switches. As with all machines, quality and safety are key, and a good chipper shredder will help you greatly in your yardwork for a long time.

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Works have appeared and featured in places such as Forbes, Huffington Post, ESPN and NBC Sports to name a few. Follow me on Twitter at @RobCobb_INSC, email me at [email protected]